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Here’s a wintery, festive side dish for your holiday table—cubes of butternut squash, along with wedges of radicchio and onion, tossed with salt and olive oil, and roasted in a hot oven until caramelized, then tossed again with toasted pine nuts, balsamic vinegar, parsley, and shredded Parmesan cheese.
Wow! My tummy does a happy dance just thinking about making and eating this again.
Radicchio is naturally a little bitter, but it loves being grilled or roasted, and it has a special affinity for balsamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese (see our grilled radicchio salad recipe).
Combine those ingredients with the sweetness and substance of butternut squash and onions, and now your palate is firing on all levels – sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.
Great alongside roast beef or prime rib, or as a vegetarian meal in and of itself.
Roasted Butternut Squash, Radicchio, and Onion Recipe
Butternut squash can be tricky to cut. Check out our How to Peel and Cut a Butternut Squash for a step-by-step how-to.
Ingredients
- 1 medium butternut squash (about 2 pounds), peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 large onion, peeled and cut into wedges through the root
- 1 head radicchio, cut into wedges through the root
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and black pepper
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- Grated parmesan or pecorino cheese to taste, about 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup
- Balsamic vinegar to taste, about a tablespoon
Method
1 Roast the vegetables: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the squash chunks, onion and radicchio wedges in olive oil and salt them well.
Arrange in one layer on baking sheets (you may need two) and put in the oven.
Roast the vegetables until their edges are nicely caramelized, turning the radicchio and onion wedges over about halfway through the roasting.
The radicchio, onion, and squash will roast at different speeds. So periodically you'll have to remove the finished vegetables and let the others remain in the oven to finish roasting. As a guideline, roast the radicchio for about 25 minutes, turning halfway.
Roast the onions about 35 minutes, again, turning halfway. Roast the squash pieces for 45 minutes, but do not turn.
In all cases do not remove from the oven until you see browning on the edges.
2 Toast the pine nuts: While the vegetables are roasting, toast the pine nuts. Heat a small pan on medium high heat. Add the pine nuts in a single layer. Cook until lightly toasted. Remove from heat to a bowl to keep the nuts from burning.
3 Chop roasted radicchio and onions: Once all the vegetables are cool enough to handle, roughly chop the radicchio and onion into manageable pieces.
4 Toss with pine nuts, parsley, balsamic, black pepper: Place the radicchio, onion, and butternut squash in a large serving bowl. Add the pine nuts and parsley. Add black pepper to taste. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Stir gently to combine, taking care not to squish the soft roasted squash.
To serve, sprinkle with some grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese.
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Links:
Butternut Squash and Arugula Salad with Warm Balsamic Vinaigrette from Taste Food
Squash, radicchio, and mushroom lasagna from Umami Girl
Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Roasted Butternut Squash, Radicchio, and Onion
I will definitely make this wonderful Fall dish again! However, I will reduce the amount of radicchio or increase the amount of butternut squash. Perhaps the head of radicchio I used was too large for 2 lbs of squash. Or, it could just be my family’s preference. The recipe was detailed and I took care to follow each step carefully. I did pull the squash out after 35 – 40 minutes. It would have been burnt if I left it in for 45 minutes (as another reviewer has commented). I used more balsamic than called for to counteract the bitterness of the radicchio. Overall this recipe is a keeper! I posted a photo of the finished dish and numerous friends asked for the recipe.
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The butternut squash was cut evenly and kept in the oven for 45 minutes and sadly the bottoms burnt so badly we had tho throw it away. The onion and the radicchio made it out alive, had some left over sweet potato, so I subbed that. Have to try again with the squash.
I’m wondering if this could be made a head of time and reheated.
Hi, Diane! That’s a good question. Because this salad is actually meant to be served slightly warm or room temperature, I think that you could roast all the veggies ahead and toast the pine nuts, and then just assemble with the parsley and balsamic just before serving. The only vegetable that makes me hesitate is the radicchio, since that’s so nice when it’s just been freshly roasted, but since you’re chopping it up anyway, I think it would be fine. Let us know how it goes!
Hi Elise, I recently came across your website. I’m very excited to make this recipe. Wondering if there is a reason you didn’t cut the onion and radicchio into smaller pieces rather than chunks before you roasted them. I was thinking they would get more browning on them if cut prior to cooking. Appreciate your thoughts. Thank you in advance.
Hi Clo, I wanted to make sure that the radicchio and onions didn’t dry out before the butternut squash was cooked through.
This was a beautiful and delicious addition to our Christmas dinner this year to go along with Braised Short Ribs and polenta. Thanks so much Elise. You never let me down.